


It Started With A Dream

by Lanimal



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Still Have Powers, F/M, Gen, M/M, Minor Character Death, Profanity
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-03-19
Updated: 2014-06-03
Packaged: 2018-01-16 06:59:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1336282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lanimal/pseuds/Lanimal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nico is a necromancer. Even more unbelievable is that he and his half sister, Hazel are invited to attend a school for children with similar magical abilities. Now Nico has to wade through the wild halls of high school, learning to balance newfound powers, a budding social life, a painful past, a school with sketchy motives, and the possibility of love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. It Started With A Nightmare

# It Started With A Nightmare

He was at the park. He didn’t remember how he got there or why he wanted to be there at such a late hour in the first place, he just knew that he was supposed to be sitting at the bottom of the slide, looking at the ground beneath him. There was a small groove of dirt whittled into the space below the slide; carved there by countless children falling to the ground after having their turn and no doubt by also trying to climb back up for their second turn.  
From a short distance, the young man resting at the slide, dimly illuminated by a nearby street light, seemed a bit odd. He had pale skin that looked like it could have once been darker, as though he were sickly. His eyes were dark brown, but the poor lighting made them appear to be as black as his shaggy hair. His clothing, too, is mostly black, with the exception of what appears to be a WWII aviator’s jacket, a chain belt, and a silver skull ring. His body seemed to radiate an aura of both ‘don’t touch me’ and ‘I hate your grandmother’. Nico di Angelo was not one to be fucked with.  
As his eyes acclimated to the dim lighting, Nico began to see the individual grains of dirt mixed in with the unfriendly woodchips that littered the park to ‘delicately cushion’ the fall of small children. He admired the varying shades of brown spotted with flecks of white Styrofoam and absentmindedly wondered if it would be at all possible to count each grain of dirt below him before the sun rose. Would his father notice his absence? Being swept away by thought, the young man hardly even noticed when the ground started to swirl around him. Three spots of dirt before him began to spiral counterclockwise, slowly picking up speed as white shapes began to emerge. Soon, three fully-formed skeletons kneeled before him, muscle and marrow still clinging to their rotting forms.  
“Oh shit!” Nico screamed, scrambling backwards up the slide. The bones looked up to him with empty faces, hands over what were once their hearts, and seemed to question him; as though saying “Wait, what?” Immediately, one cocked its head, rearing forward, attempting to climb up the metal slide and failing to find traction. The other two followed shortly, pushing the first one ahead, supporting him as he swiped at Nico’s red and black converse, catching a shoelace and dragging him down. He fell into the space where countless carefree children before him had landed, the skeletal forms clacking around him, enveloping him until not even the light from the street could be seen. He woke up screaming.  
Nico di Angelo would love to say that it was simply a dream. He would love to blame it on that night’s dinner or a bad day, but he knows better. That shit is most definitely not what dreams are made of. That night was real, except instead of waking up to his bedroom ceiling, he opened his eyes to the sound of clattering bones; watching them as they sunk into the hard-packed earth as though it were quick sand. Afterwards, he had run like hell back to the penthouse he shared with his parents, crawled into bed, and prayed to every deity he could think of. Nico was raised Roman Catholic, but never really believed in any of it. He swore that what he just experienced must have been God pissing on him. _You think I’m not real? Well here are some undead freaks for ya, motherfucker! Believe in me now?_  
He took a moment to look around his room. Shadows lay across everything, hiding under his bed, around his desk, in the space left by his open closet door. Never before had he been so afraid of the dark. He had that dream enough times to know that he wasn’t going back to sleep tonight. Nico grabbed his laptop from his desk and booted it up. Like every other night, he started up going to Mythomagic sites. Chat rooms, wikis, even subreddits. After a couple of hours of this, he was looking up terms like ‘necromancy’ and ‘dead rising’. He never really found much. He knew that it would probably be best to write it off as a lucid dream and move on, but then he’d find a story on Yahoo or some beyond the grave fan site about some girl who knew a guy whose uncle’s great grandmother Tootie could see ghosts and raise the dead and, for just a second, feel as though he weren’t crazy. That night, Nico fell asleep at his keyboard, snuggling it for warmth like a cat or a desperate fangirl.  
He woke up the next morning to the sound of bickering, nature’s alarm clock in his opinion. He quickly jumped in the shower, the high water pressure barely penetrating his matted hair and tried his best to wake up under the cold water after a mere three hours of sleep. After his shower he looked into the mirror. Dark bags weighed heavily under his eyes, giving them the impression of being large and black with a glint of madman in the foggy reflection. He really should stop doing this to himself. After dressing in his usual all-black attire-the usual exceptions included-Nico stole a pomegranate from the fruit bowl on the sleek black marble kitchen table, a furniture piece selected by his step-mother to match the rest of the recently remodeled room. Sneaking past the elevator door, he successfully avoided the now full-on fight going down in the living room. He pressed the ground floor button and waited as the elevator took its sweet time, going two floors up. Usually, penthouses are found on the top floor of the building. His father was neurotic, though, and hated the sky. So, naturally, his father came to the totally sane conclusion of commissioning the construction of a 66 story apartment complex with a spacious two-floor penthouse carved into the warm, cuddly, cold, hard ground. He still has no idea just what, exactly his father does for a living, but he senses that he must really not want to know.  
Once on the ground floor, Nico waved to the doorman, who did his job well as he exited the building. The valet had come to know his routine by now and was standing outside the tall building, keys in hand, smile on face. Nico tipped the kid and jumped in his 1966 Volkswagen Beetle, a small present from his father, gifted on his sixteenth birthday. He promptly peeled the pomegranate, digging out its insides and enjoying the bittersweet taste as he waited for his half sister, Hazel, to finish getting ready-if she was even up yet. One fruit rind tossed out the window and thirty minutes later, Hazel burst out the front door, her heavy gold necklace jingling as she slit into the car and threw her backpack in the back seat along with his. She was wearing high-wasted red jeans with a flowing white mid-drift top. A simple outfit made loud by her usual abundance of gems and jewels. One difference he noted today, however, was a thin gold wire clasped around her wrist. It was an odd choice for her; simple and small. He could only assume that it had come from her new boyfriend that he had been hearing so much about. She noticed him inspecting it and immediately drew her hand away from sight. "What?" she asked, defensive. "Nothing," he responded lightly, kicking the car into ignition and pulling out of his parking spot.  
To Nico, school was almost as bad as the park at night. Grotesque people skulking about, some looking at him as though he could be an easy target, others averting their eyes because they knew better. All dampened by their idiocy and intensified by their insensitivity. Oh, high school. He stuck close to the walls, timing his steps perfectly so as not to bump into any of them unnecessarily. his locker was near the center of school, lining one of the walls that surrounded the outdoor eating pavilion. His school was relatively new and apparently, when it was built, someone forgot to add enough lockers when they were trying to make it look 'eco-friendly' and nice. So it has solar panels, windmills, ponds that recycle water, and a greenhouse commonly used to smoke pot in, but only approximately 500 lockers, meaning that seniors and juniors get lockers and all underclassmen are forced to either carry their books, or start dating a junior. Nico shared his locker with no one. It was filled with books that he had never opened and homework that he never did with a tiny disco ball hanging from the top hanger, courtesy of Hazel, who probably now shares a locker with Frank, a guy who is just barely old enough to be a junior and more than capable of stepping on Nico if he felt like it. He grabs his physics book and heads to class just as the first warning bell of the day rings, once again fading into the shadows.

By fourth period, Nico wants to take a nap. He's already taken two, but still. He goes to his locker once again to get out his English book and heads off to the corresponding classroom. English is probably the only real subject that Nico actually likes. He doesn't think that anyone has ever really taken a glance at him and thought 'must be a bookworm', but its true. He loves the thought of going into a world where anything is possible. That's probably why he adores Mythomagic so much, too. Nico's English teacher reminds him somewhat of the one from the movie _'Dead Poets Society'_. He was loud, vindictive, and passionate. Not to mention the fact that he didn't take shit from anyone. Today, he had us writing poems for this year's arts and literature magazine. Nico wrote about his 'encounter', making it seem dreamlike. It sounded so cool on paper, as many such ideas do. Half the things that go on in books would have people shitting if it happened for real, but the characters always handle it so well, even if it doesn't seem so from an outside perspective. I guess that's why they're called heroes.


	2. Then Came A Letter

# Then Came A Letter

As much as Nico loved English, there was no denying the majesty of lunch. He never ate much, and if it weren’t for Hazel and her group of friends, he would probably be eating alone; but being there with them made him feel just a bit more normal, a trait that he seemed to be craving, given his recent experience. As he walked out to the pavilion, Hazel waved to him, holding hands with Frank and tugging him along like a ragdoll as she went to greet her brother. “We’re changing things up today and sitting over there.” She said, pointing towards a large sunny area in the grass near the corner where the rest of their posse sat sun bathing. Nico let Hazel take his hand and lead him over to them, though he suspected that this was just another one of her crummy plans to “put a little color in his cheeks”.   
He sat down, pulling out a bag of grapes from his bag and munched on them idly as his group chatted about either the latest game or the next game or a dance or party or some ‘insert stereotypical high school experience here’. The sun felt warm on his neck, a somewhat comforting experience that he kinda hated. He noticed the warmth intensify until he felt as though his skin was burning in the heat. He was way too pale for this. Nico backed up against the school building, resting his back against the cool wall. He closed his eyes and enjoyed the sensation for a moment, relaxing against the grass. His eyes snapped open to the sound of a girl screaming. One of Hazel’s no-name friends, a girl wearing ripped denim jeans, a blue shirt, and a letterman jacket that said ‘Choir’, was staring at her ankle, attached to it was a hand. It was the color of dirt and lacking in all the things that make up a hand, except for the bones, and was sticking out of the ground. The funny thing was that Nico’s first thought was _How are the bones staying together and gripping her without joints or tendons?_ His second thought was _My bad._ Wait. Why was he feeling guilty? This wasn’t his fault, was it? These bones, they followed him. At that moment, the hand was quickly becoming a hand, a wrist, an arm, and a shoulder as it used the girl for leverage. She just kept screaming, trying to pull away as the others looked on in horror. This was his fault. Nico got up, walked over to the girl, and stomped on the skeleton’s elbow, breaking it and stepping it into the dirt until it began to sink. He kneeled next to the girl and gave her the fakest real smile he could manage. She looked to be a freshman. “Damn seniors in the theatre department must be trying some prank. Grape?” He offered, holding out the bag. He gauged everyone’s reaction. He wasn’t sure if they would buy it at first, but their expressions soon began to soften and turn into smiles. It was always so easy for people to believe a poorly-spun story rather than the hard truth, even when it grabbed them by the ankles. “Let’s just hope you don’t start acting like that next year, Nico. You’d be the beginning of Armageddon,” one of the guys joked. _You have no idea,_ Nico thought.  
As the bell rang for the next class, Nico noticed Frank eyeing him suspiciously. He was a big Asian guy with the face, body, and personality of a very happy panda bear. Usually. Right in that moment, however, Frank looked like he was ready to chain Nico to something and throw it into the ocean-but in a protective way. It was like he had never seen Nico before and worried that he would hurt somebody. The moment fled and soon, Nico was learning about dead people instead of stepping on them. Once the day was over, Nico made his way to the junior parking lot to meet up with Hazel. This time, Frank was with her. “He needs a ride,” she called as Nico walked up to them. He eyed him warily, all semblance of fear and suspicion washed from his big panda eyes as though they were never there. “Fine,” Nico sighed, unlocking the doors and turning over the ignition. “Shotgun!” Frank said, hopping in the passenger seat. Nico just looked at him. This kid was odd, and that was coming from Nico, The Apparent Lord of the Dead.  
The ride only got worse. Frank kept asking Nico oddly invasive questions like, “Got any weird hobbies?” (No. _Unless you count Mythomagic and raising the dead._ ) “So how long have you and Hazel been siblings?” (A few years. _Hopefully longer than you will be in my life._ ) “Do you like horror films with dead people in them?” (Doesn’t everybody? _What kind of phrasing was that? Couldn’t you have just said ‘zombie movies?_ ) and “Got any mental diseases?” (Um…No? _Okay, so this guy was not just odd, but a total freak._ ) All the while, he was giving Nico some really crazy directions until they were a little over a mile out of town. Potholes started to make an appearance on the road and Nico had to swerve drunkenly to avoid them. When they finally got to the middle of nowhere, Frank told them to pull over, saying that he could walk from here. Honestly, where in the hell did this guy live? How in the hell did he get to school on time every morning? Hazel made a face of confusion as she switched from the back to the front seat, as though her boyfriend being some kind of homeless hitchhiker was the only weird thing about this car ride. She stuck her head out the window and kissed him goodbye before I drove off, not really caring if he made it down the road okay.   
The next morning, Nico woke to the sound of his stepmother calling for his and Hazel’s presence. It was a Saturday and Nico felt as though this was just another way for this woman to make his life less pleasurable. He looked at his phone to see that it was only 10. He could have slept for another 4 hours! After she called again, he figured it was time to get out of bed. By her fourth call, Nico was making his way into their living room. His stepmother was beaming, and for a second, he could see the beauty in her features that had made his father fall in love with her. She was tall, practically towering over Nico, and her hair was curly and black, although not like Hazel’s. Her skin was pale like Nico’s, as were her eyes. She looked like a well-loved dress, once full of color, but worn and washed to a point where all that was left was a white sheet. In that moment, however, she looked like a spring morning, bright and cheery. She stuck an envelope in his face and squealed excitedly. “Look!” His eyes tried to focus on the paper so close to his face. He could just hardly make out that the letter was addressed to both him and Hazel and that, judging by the tears along the top and her incessant squealing, she had already opened it. “So…You woke me up to show me that you broke the law and read another person’s mail without their permission?” he asked dryly. Her smile faltered. “No!” she said, smacking me on the nose with the letter, “I woke you up to tell you that you just got a letter in the mail accepting both yourself and Hazel into a _prestigious_ academy.” She said smugly, as though our apparent victory were her own. “And?” I countered. “And you’re going.” She said, eyeing me warily. Just then, Hazel finally decided to make an appearance, fully dressed with what little makeup she usually wore on. “What are we talking about?” she asked. “Oh, Hazel!” Persephone bubbled, rushing over to hug Hazel as though trying to win her over. “You’re going away!” she giggled. Nico nodded his head solemnly. _Of course. This really was her victory._  
Nico and Hazel had tried to fight it, but Persephone’s insistence mixed with their father’s apparent lack of care meant that by the Sunday of next week, their bags were packed into the trunk of Nico’s car. Hazel had been the one to protest the most, seeming how she had the most to lose. Nico didn’t have much of anyone to say goodbye to, save his English teacher, Mr. Smith, who told Nico that his poem was great and that he’d be sure to include it in the school’s literary magazine, even if he no longer attended this school.  
The academy was the definition of secluded. It existed about fifteen miles down the road from where they had dropped Frank off. In the letter, the school was described as ‘a place for all ages’, like a daycare or a dentist’s office. It housed and taught ages spanning from children in kindergarten to super seniors in college. All students lived on campus, a sprawling complex complete with hundreds of different buildings that supposedly taught anything and everything from fencing to history to welding to learning a dead language. Being his father’s son, Nico had seen his fair share of large estates and ‘prestigious schools’, but it took all his might to keep from gaping as he drove his car past the golden gates of what he could only rationalize to be a very sophisticated version of Heaven.  
As he rolled down to the parking garage located on the campus map given to him by the man at the gate, he couldn’t help but admire the beauty of the buildings. Stain glass, roman columns, even he knew art when he saw it. Once they rolled up to the garage, a man dressed as a valet asked to take their bags as his friend, also dressed in uniform, took Nico’s keys to park his car. The one with their luggage led them up the way they had come, and then took a right in the direction of a building with house-shaped archways leading up to it. Nico ran ahead to hold the door open for the man, who immediately wheeled off to the left once inside. Hazel and Nico followed, but stopped just inside the doors. The room was vast. The ceiling was at least 20 stories high, each level ringed with balconies. In front of them was a club room of sorts. There were several comfy looking chairs and rugs spread throughout the room with sources of entertainment spread in between. There were bookshelves, ping pong tables, instruments (both classical and modern), half-finished games of War, Battleship, and Settlers of Catan, easels, looms, arcade games, and a pool and a grill out back. All throughout the building, kids ranging from all ages milled about, playing games, talking, and staring. Yes, staring. They were all peeking glances at the new comers, as though there was something wrong with them that everyone noticed, but none wanted to point out. A couple of the kids on the third balcony up seemed to be about Hazel’s age and were shamelessly pointing at Nico, saying something he couldn’t hear. His attention was brought back to the main floor by a voice that sounded as though it were trying to sink into itself. “Um hey…guys. I’m just…I’m gonna show you around campus today.” Hazel gasped and Nico focused on the source of the voice. Panda Boy had come to greet them. He had an apologetic look on his face, as though to say _’Sorry I never told you that I actually went to a place for smart rich kids and lied to you and made you drive a whole mile out of your way to drop me off in the middle of nowhere without even giving you gas money.’_ Not surprisingly, Hazel was the first to speak. Her voice was quiet, but trembled in a way that made you just _know_ that you were in trouble. “I did not see you for a _week_! After we dropped you off, it was as though you dropped off the face of the earth simultaneously! I thought you were avoiding me or something! Like you were trying to break up with me by avoidance! And then you show up here like some sort of tour guide? What is your problem?” Frank’s face seemed to shrink. “I’m sorry, Hazel. I was assigned to follow Nico and confirm his acceptance.”  
“Confirm his _what_?” She was getting kind of hysterical.  
“I had to confirm that he had what it took to make it into the school. You were also accepted as a…precautionary measure.” Frank’s voice was getting softer, like Hazel’s voice was consuming its volume. He had to work up his courage to get out the last two words.  
“A precautionary measure! Was that why you were pretending to like me, too, Frank? A precautionary measure?” They had most definitely attracted the attention of the entire room. If Hazel’s voice wasn’t enough, all of the metal objects in the room seemed to be slowly scraping across the floor towards her. “Great! Just Great! Just one more guy using me to get to my brother!” She started to cry and fan herself with her hand. A blonde girl with a clip board came over and escorted Hazel away, asking if she would rather skip the tour and just go straight to her room. Nico looked at Frank, measuring his reaction through all the confusion and hurt, looking for any sign that he had understood that last part of Hazel’s rant. She usually wasn’t so overblown, or at least she never used to be. Nico thought he probably had something to do with that. He was just happy that the moment had ended quickly. Frank began to snap out of his trance and looked to Nico. “So…tour? Or would you prefer I just go away?” In all honesty, Frank kinda creeped Nico out; but he seemed so sad that Nico agreed to the full tour and trailed behind Frank’s moping shadow, listening to what must have been the most depressing audio to go along with such a magnificent landscape.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! So that was dramatic! I promise it (Hazel) will cool down from here on out. Just needed that little meltdown to occur real quick. Like ripping off a Band-Aid! Thanks again for reading and I do respond to comments and critiques. Thanks!


	3. A Confession

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much to HyacinthusAmongUs , whom I have driven up the wall in an attempt to learn formatting. I would recommend her work (http://archiveofourown.org/works/1262566), but I'm pretty sure that 82% of you are from her fan base and the other 18% is HyacinthusAmongUs herself. Thank you so much for reading.

The tour ended at door in the original building, a place Nico now knew was called “The Forum”- a name given by some of the brainier students as an inside joke that Nico clearly did not get. Frank handed Nico a key attached to a small chain with a skull on it. He eyed it warily, wandering if the kid thought he was being funny. Frank had already explained that Nico had been chosen for this school due to his abilities as a “necromancer,” among other things. Hazel had been chosen simply by relation. “ _Powers are always genetic. You and Hazel are half siblings, so there was a chance that she was normal, but judging by that scene she made…_ ” He hadn’t needed to finish his sentence. 

 

By the time Nico and Frank had made their way back to the Forum, all the chairs, games, and utensils had been perfectly put back in place. Even the unfinished games of War and Battleship were just as they had been, not a single piece moved or peg out of place. Seeing it kinda gave Nico the chills.

 

Frank was still standing there, probably waiting for Nico to open the door, as if this were a task too great for him to do himself. He stuck the key in the lock and pushed on the door. The room was on the third floor and off in a corner, as if the room itself were trying to slink into the shadows. Nico was taken away at what was inside. The room was the exact size and shape of his one back home. Everything was perfectly identical, right down to the shadows playing across his desk as if it, too wanted to slink away. Nico’s mouth was agape. “H-how?”

 

“Magic,” Frank said, as though that should be obvious. “Hazel’s room should be on the upper half. Floor thirteen, same spot.” Frank had suddenly become very interested in his feet. “Right. Thanks.” Nico said, shutting the door and slipping the key into his back pocket and slipping past the sad wall of meat. 

 

Stopping himself, Nico turned around. “Hey, Frank? She’ll get over it. This place is just…a lot to take in. Give her time.” Frank nodded, a little more hopeful. 

 

Nico walked over to the elevator, pressed the up button and waited for the silver and black art deco doors to open. Nico had a hard time finding the button for the thirteenth floor because all the buttons were in Roman numerals. Finally, he resorted to counting the buttons like a child, starting with the one that read ‘VI’ because if he remembered correctly, that one was six. Finding the actual room wasn’t nearly as difficult. Right outside where his room stood ten floors down, there was a small panda bear with a thin gold wire choking its neck. 

 

He entered quietly, hoping that he wasn’t about to be vaulted over the railing for having the wrong room. Nico sighed, relieved. The inside looked to be exactly like Hazel’s room back home. On the bed was Hazel, her cinnamon brown hair covering most of her face, and the blonde girl with the clip board, trying to explain the school rules in kind, hushed tones. “-sculpted to your abilities. The Forum is open at all times, day and night, but we ask that you keep a quieter tone next time, as students here have varied sleep schedules and we would hate to discriminate against narcoleptics. Training is expected and homework is minimal, as are off-campus excursions, unless you have been sent on a mission by our off-campus administrator, Rachel or have been certified as a protector and sent on recruitment.” The girl just went on and on, hitting almost every nerve along the way. Nico shut the door behind him, attracting the girls’ attention. The blonde scrutinized Nico, like he was one of those jigsaw puzzles with no corners and five extra pieces. 

 

“Nico. Hello. I’m Annabeth Chase.” She said, rising from the bed to shake his hand. He ignored her outstretched arm, instead inspecting his sister’s face- or what little he could see of it. Somehow, she didn’t seem happy to see him. Go figure. 

 

“Uh, hey.” He said, watching as Annabeth dropped her arm and proceeded with a tactical retreat. She had seemed a bit excited at first and Nico wondered how often they got new students. 

 

He sat down on the bed next to Hazel and waited for her to break the silence. Nico- the mastermind at consoling sobbing teenage girls. Eventually, Hazel did look up. 

 

“I know. It’s not your fault. It’s just…I thought he actually liked me.” Nico was a bit surprised that it had worked. 

 

“I just spent an hour and a half walking around campus with him acting like a wounded puppy. Trust me, he likes you.” He really couldn’t believe that he was just reassured his sanity and told that there was an entire world of magic wielders walking about him and his most pressing current issue was rather or not Frank the Panda was in love. 

 

“Are you sure it’s me, though?” she asked, her eyes boring into his. There it was; the reason why this was an issue in the first place. Nico was certain that Frank felt no attraction to him, but Hazel was once again venturing down a path of thought Nico had dubbed the Yew Dilemma; a place she always seemed to find herself just before she got serious with any guy anymore. 

 

“Yes.”


	4. Along Came Yew

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This entire chapter is a flashback into Nico's past. Sorry for any confusion.

Michael was a constant figure at the Hades Household. He and Hazel were practically inseparable, they shared almost all their classes, ate lunch together, and, in their middle school stupor, had even decided to share a locker. It was no surprise that Michael seemed to be at their house more than his own. Every day of Nico’s freshman year, he would step out of the elevator; throw is backpack in his room, and call out a hello to the both of them, expecting both to reply without even seeing their faces first. Michael was about Nico’s height with similar hair and eye colors, muscular features, a pointy nose, and scrunched up features, as though he spent the whole day scowling. He also had a small pin on his jacket lapel, a token one received for being a member of the middle school archery club. He was cute, in a mean sort of way; not that Nico cared. 

Even when the boy was not around, he was talked about excessively. _”-and then he threw it and it hit the sub right in the eye! From like fifteen feet away!”_ Nico was getting real tired of the kid by mid- school year and even told Hazel as much. _”Either you shut up about him and start dating him, or you shut up about him!”_ That had sure rendered young seventh grade Hazel speechless, at least for a second. Her face heated up, neck and ears reddening. _”I am_ not _into him like that! We’re just friends!”_ Nico didn’t really care how she felt, he was just happy that his comment seemed to stem the flow of commentary on how great Yew was, at least for a while.

By the end of the school year, Nico had come to accept Michael Yew as another part of the Hades family. When it came time for their stepmother to leave on her yearly ‘Mothers Only Cruise’ and their father started brooding, holing himself up at work, Michael would come over and play guitar as Hazel and Nico tried to cook. 

He practically lived in their penthouse over the summer, eventually getting Nico to warm up to him as he gathered Nico and Hazel in their movie room every Friday night to watch some flick that hadn’t even made it to the big screen yet. His hot headed, smart mouth comments directed at the screen seemed to fill the room and make Nico wonder if this was what having a childhood was like.

One Friday night, Hazel had fallen asleep, curled up in her Lay-Z-Boy recliner, as they watched the first Hunger Games movie. Michael sat in the recliner next to her and Nico sat on the floor. As Katness Everdeen sang to Rue, Michael slid off his chair and onto the floor. Nico snapped his head to look at Michael as the boy tried to hold his hand. “The hell?” Nico said quizzically. Michael looked at him, face scrunched up as usual, with no sign of letting go. “I don’t really know what Hazel thinks of me, but…I-I don’t like girls.” Nico pulled his hands away. The kid had guts, he’d give him that. “Well I think I do,” he said, shocked. To be honest, Nico wasn’t really sure _what_ he liked, but he knew that it wasn’t Hazel’s best friend.

Michael stopped coming over for a while, refusing to tell Hazel why. She blamed Nico, saying that he probably threatened Michael for reasons unknown. Nico didn’t feel like it was his place to tell her the truth.

A month passed and Nico started to notice jut how much he missed having Michael around. Hazel didn’t want to do movie nights or even cook dinner without Michael, leaving the house with an empty feeling. Nico finally decided to go over to Michael’s house to see if he could fix things, at least get him to hang out with Hazel again, just to get her out of her room. 

It was much harder of a task than he had expected, considering he had no clue where the kid even lived. He found an old class directory from when Hazel was in the fifth grade and found the address, hoping that he hadn’t moved in two years.

The boy lived in an old town house a few blocks from Nico and Hazel. At first glance, it looked like a regular old house with peeling paint, permanently open shutters, and a slanted roof. From inside, Nico could hear the faint playing of a piano. As he walked up, the sun came out from behind the clouds and illuminated the house, light bouncing off the windows and walls, making it almost too bright to look at.

Nico knocked and a short woman answered the door. A look of confusion wrinkled her face and she called to the back of the house, stunting the music. Michael walked up from a back room and immediately began to back up after seeing Nico’s face in the doorway. He looked as though he were trying to reverse time. “Michael, get over here. Stop that. Is this your friend or something?” his mother asked. “Or something,” he mumbled, shuffling to the door and grabbing Nico’s arm, pulling him out the door and down the street.

“What do you want? I’m sorry I came on to you and humiliated myself, can we just leave it at that?”

“Well, yeah. But you stopped hanging out with Hazel all of a sudden and she’s really upset.” Nico felt kind of ashamed. Initially, he thought he was doing the right thing, mending Michael and Hazel’s friendship, but the look Michael was giving him made him feel like a big ass.

“Ya’know, I can understand Hazel being upset. I can understand you wanting to help, and I’m probably being a big idiot for thinking this, but…do you even give a damn?” _Big words coming from a 4’6” seventh grader,_ Nico thought. “I mean, Hazel is awesome and her friendship means the world to me, but I wasn’t going over to that depressing hole in the ground just for her. I first met you and immediately thought you were just some creep, a leper, but then I got to know you and-and I discovered myself.” He had become increasingly more aware of his shoes. “You were the first person I told,” he added meekly.

Nico looked around them in an attempt to look anywhere but at the boy next to him. Their walk had slowed in pace with the conversation, bringing them to a stop under a sagging willow tree. Nico found himself humming _”Deep in the Meadow”_ when suddenly Michael’s lips were on his. His heart started beating faster and he wasn’t too sure what was going on, but he knew he liked it. His first kiss, stolen by a thirteen year old in a park; stolen at least until he started kissing back. They broke apart and Michael looked at his face, surprised, as though he weren’t expecting Nico to return the favor. He made a sound like he was trying to clear his throat and just stared running away. Nico didn’t chase after him, too surprised at his own actions.

Michael did start coming back to the penthouse as Nico had asked, singing, playing music, yelling at the movie screen, but Friday nights seemed to take on a whole new meaning once Hazel fell asleep. They became the nights wherein Nico and Michael awkwardly held hands until one of the two built up the courage to kiss the other, and then making out. This went on the rest of the summer, the two eventually becoming more comfortable, their moments of innocent kissing and handholding becoming much more and eventually bleeding into the other days of the week, Michael sneaking into their apartment when Hazel was sleeping, meeting under the willow well past curfew, even going over to Michael’s house when his mother wasn’t home.

They drank each other in, not getting enough, until one day, half way through Nico’s sophomore year, he came home to the sound of Hazel screaming his name from the kitchen. He dropped his bag, immediately running to her, thinking the worst-buglers, bodily injuries, poisonings- to find Hazel sitting on the floor in tears. “I asked Michael out today.” _Oh shit._ “I figured he wasn’t taking the initiative because he was _shy_ ,” she spat. “He just got this horrified look on his face like I was some monster trying to eat his soul. He said that he just wanted to be _friends_. I pushed, asked what was wrong with me, said it was him, said he was gay. Said he was in love with _you_! D-did you _know_?” Nico tried to hold his tongue, but his face did the talking. “How long?” her words were quiet, like the sweet ticking of a time bomb. “Mid-summer,” Nico mumbled. 

Hazel stopped talking to the both of them afterwards. Michael seemed crushed, hurting over the loss of a friend. Nico was alone again. The rest of the year churned by, Hazel throwing herself into the popular crowd in search of new friends, and Michael once again couldn’t seem to bring himself to come back to their apartment. Nico had tried to text Michael after a while, occasionally seeing him around town with groups of friends. Hazel had forgiven Nico somewhat, able to at least make conversation with him. Everyone seemed to go their separate ways and soon summer came. Hazel and Nico had decided to go on a road trip to commemorate Nico getting his license and new car from his father. It had been Hazel’s idea, an attempt to fix a very broken thing. They had gone down to the California coast, around to Colorado, and ended their trip in Connecticut, where Hazel got a text from a friend saying that Michael was missing.

He had been in a car with some friends, driving down a bridge near his house, when the suspensions began to snap. It was an old bridge and it began to collapse before anyone had even noticed something was wrong. Their car, along with many others, had fallen into the river that night. Some people survived and many bodies were found, but all they could find of Michael was his archery pin.

At the wake, Nico and Hazel sat in the back of the room drinking in each other’s misery. They were there again for the burial, Nico’s Volkswagen joining in the funeral procession. Both brother and sister placed a narcissus bloom on the boy's empty casket before it was lowered into the ground.


	5. Just Warming Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico's abilities are put to the test at the climbing wall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I took way too long procrastinating on this chapter. (*~*) A special someone is trying to get me to write just before I go to bed 'cause I'm most creative when I'm tired, but I always end up just falling asleep. (U_U) Thanks once again to HyacinthusAmongUs for editing this chapter. Paragraph placement and dialogue structure truly are the bane of my existence...<3

He woke up to the sound of sword fighting in the courtyard, an unnaturally natural sound that, after five days, Nico had become accustomed to. He quickly jumped out of bed and rushed to ready himself, donning his school shirt (an ugly burnt orange color), a pair of black jeans, and his aviator’s jacket. All students were also supposed to have a necklace full of beads to symbolize the passing year, but he hadn’t been there long enough yet. In addition, they were also supposed to have a mandatory “seal of ability” pinned to their shirts stating what type of magic they’re specialized in, Nico’s pin looked like an eye with an inverse cross coming out the bottom, as though the face it belonged to were crying.

Nico left the forum and hooked a right to the mess hall, meeting up with Hazel and Frank. In the mess hall, and in most other places on campus, people with the same abilities tended to stick together. Both Nico and Hazel had been categorized the same, but Frank had a pin that looked like the symbol for ‘boy’, meaning that his sitting with the two of them attracted more than a few stares. Although, since getting their pins, Nico and Hazel seemed to be getting those looks without much help. 

“Hey. Sleep well?” Hazel asked. Nico had confided his dream to her a few days ago, now confident that he wasn’t insane. 

“Yeah. Been better since getting here.” He said, picking up a roll from her plate and buttering it.

“Hey Frank?” Nico said, redirecting his attention to the oversized bear of a boy currently eating two bagels smothered in cream cheese and stacked on top of one another. “Where are the other kids? The ones with powers like me and Hazel? I see a lot of pins, but none with the little cross thing like ours.”

Frank swallowed (gulped?) and took a moment to answer. “You guys…you have very rare powers. It’s very unusual for someone like you to be born and when you are, people with your abilities usually cause…calamity. Death. The others don’t know you. They’re just being cautious.”

“Great,” Nico said. “So I can bring the dead back and Hazel can…move things. Peers beware.”

Frank, a pained look once again painting his face, corrected, “Actually, she can summon fine metals, jewels, and the curses that usually come along with them.”

Hazel, previously listening quietly, was now looking down at her jewel-adorned outfit, most likely wondering whether the attire was at all cursed. “Well, I’m full. Nico? Classes should start soon. Let’s go.” Nico nodded and they headed off in the opposite direction of Frank.

Nico and Hazel had spent the last week learning about the history of magic, basic examples of sorcery in literature, and the all-too-confusing explanations for what each type of magic was and exactly how and why it works in nature along their usual history, English, Math, and Science courses. Today, however, instead of their usual teacher, a man in a leopard-print shirt was waiting for them outside the big house, where their classes were usually held. “Today, we are going to give you a test to use for a progress report in a month or so. Come with me.” 

They took a right and continued for a while, passing a state-of-the-art volleyball facility and an amazing feat of architecture that the man now known as “Mr. D” passively described as the “arts and crafts hut” to arrive at a wall that seemingly reached out to the heavens, with large rocks and spikes jutting out on all sides. At the bottom, a group of kids ranging from ages eight to sixteen were lined up, bumping one another for a better spot. Among them, Nico noticed Frank. He seemed to be in a whole other world, confident and bristling. Suddenly, a loud siren started and all the kids surged forward. 

They began swarming the wall, climbing up like a hoard of ants. “Where’s their climbing gear?” Nico asked, shocked. Mr. D just chuckled. “Keep watching. It gets better.” By now, many of the climbers were about a third of the way up, with Frank and another girl leading the pack. Suddenly, the wall began to rumble and large boulders started rolling down the side, crashing into one another and taking the kids down with them. Hazel was holding back a scream and Nico was about to demand the wall be stopped, turned off, destroyed, when Mr. D grabbed Hazel’s shoulder and pointed to a spot near the center of the wall. Frank.

He was jumping from one rock hold to the other like he was born climbing; dancing and spinning between the boulders and holding the lead while the others falling beneath him began jumping from boulder to boulder mid-air until landing at the bottom of the wall and starting again with even greater fervor, calling Frank’s name and demanding bloodshed. 

“Not human,” Nico whispered. 

“Human,” Mr. D said, “perfectly human”. 

Then came the lava, boiling down from the top of the wall and not giving Frank even a moment’s pause. To his left, and a bit further down, the girl began to pick up speed, leaping from handhold to handhold just before each was taken over by the boiling liquid.

In the end, Frank made it to the top only a moment before the girl, warranting a cheer from Hazel. Frank looked down and noticed us. “Oh! Hey, Hazel! Nico! Are you guys gonna climb? I’ll wait for you up here!”

The girl smacked him over the head. “They’re not gonna get that far. Don’t make your girlfriend have to fail in front of you!” 

Hazel’s face fell. The girl wasn’t wrong. There was no way that the two of them could do anything of the like. They would simply fall to the pit of lava at the base, if they ever managed to climb it in the first place. Mr. D looked at the two of them and then back up to the top of the wall where Frank and the girl stood. “Well, no time like the present. The lava will cool off in a few, so for your first run, let’s hook you up to some climbing gear.”

By climbing gear, Mr. D meant making Frank tie two ropes to the top of the rock and then having the two lanky, unexercised, somewhat pale children of death and curses feed said ropes through their belt loops. Nico and Hazel were now at the base of the wall, looking up yet still not seeing the whole thing. Mr. D came up behind them and wished them luck. “Just do what you can and then some.” All of the other kids had stayed behind to watch, some making bets on who would get the furthest before falling, others betting on who would give up first. Nico took a step forward, looking for a foothold and promptly fell on his ass before even making it to the next hold. Laughter and cash flow ensued. He tried again and fell again, his body not wanting to leave the earth. He tried once more and this time Hazel joined in, each making it only so far before allowing gravity to take over. Some of the kids started to leave and Nico got that sick feeling in his stomach like he was a child in a group of teenagers, being laughed at and ridiculed for not understanding references that went way over his head. He tried again, this time using his rope a bit more for leverage. He got a bit farther, farther, and farther still until he was at least a quarter of the way up. By then, his hands had started to ache, but finding handholds seemed to be getting easier and he seemed to be making progress. 

He looked down to find Hazel getting her footing just a few feet away. He went faster, widening the gap and feeling pretty good about it. He wasn’t going nearly as fast, and his movements weren’t nearly as fluid, but he also wasn’t on his ass. Then the shaking started. Nico held on to the rope for dear life, losing his footing and swinging out, the rope dragging him along the face of the wall, daring him to fall. Nico knew that he wasn’t even close to being good enough to find his way down safely if he were to lose the rope, so he wrapped the rope around his hand and used the wall as a brace to jump between boulders. If last time was of any indication, the lava was going to be coming soon and he needed to find his way up before that became an issue.

Quickly, Nico began using a combination of the wall and the boulders rolling past as impromptu spring boards, leaping his way up with the rope. The lava came in one great wave. He could feel the heat erupting from the rock long before he saw it. As the wall became overrun, Nico resorted to using only the boulders to climb. Looking down, he could see Hazel riding her rope back down to the ground. He continued.

Nico knew something was up when the rumbling stopped. The rocks became few and far between until they were near nonexistent. _I guess this is the next step, punishment for those who haven’t finished yet,_ Nico thought. As he considered what to do next, he came to the stunning realization that he was out of boulders. As he swung towards the wall, Nico prayed that someone would catch him at the last second like in the movies. 

There was a thud as his body hit the wall and he soon felt an immense heat cover his body and then cool. He tried to move his arms, but he was entombed. He couldn’t breathe. As he struggled, he broke free, only to find himself surrounded in rock and covered in ash. The space that Nico had fallen into had dried into rock. Pulling himself out, Nico was hit with another wave of lava and that too solidified. Nico could only reason it to be a part of the magic of the wall. _Maybe the lava’s just for show,_ Nico reasoned. It made sense; after all, they didn’t really want to call home to explain to a kid’s parents that their little boy just became one with the earth. Nico carried on, grabbing at the lava to shape it into handles, and was soon at the top, waiving at Frank, who was charging at him. 

“The hell _was_ that? What did you _do_?” he asked, incredulous.

“Climbed the wall,” Nico answered honestly. 

“You weren’t supposed to _dry it_! Gods, we all thought you had died! What were you thinking? Why didn’t you come down when Chiron called you?”

“He called me?” Nico asked, now afraid that he may have done something very wrong.

“Yeah. You couldn’t hear? Hazel went down. Gods, c’mon. Let’s fly down.”

Frank grabbed him and the girl with them and rushed them off the dry side of the wall, turning into a large bird of prey as they fell, giving them a soft landing. Nico, too shocked to scream, quietly whispered “You’re a bird.” 

Frank looked at him, obviously still upset from the wall incident. “Yeah, I can turn into animals. I’m a shape shifter, rare, but not abnormal. Y’know what’s abnormal? Playing with lava like it’s clay! The hell?”

Mr. D walked over and stood between the two boys, followed quickly by Hazel and the other spectators, all of them reiterating one another-“Wow! How’d you do that? Freaky! Cool! Kinda cheating, though. Tooootally thought you were dead!” 

Nico looked at everyone’s faces and then to Mr. D. “Wasn’t it supposed to do that?” Mr. D chuckled. 

“No, that was you. It’s perfectly normal, don’t worry.” Nico thought he sounded like a doctor explaining the woes of puberty. 

“Fire resistant. Cool,” Nico said, looking down at himself. 

“Not fire resistant,” Mr. D admonished, “if that were the case, then you would be naked, not covered in soot. No, what you can do is way different. Your powers belong to the earth, and allow you to mold it as you please, given the right circumstances. Now, on to the next item on the agenda, yeah?” Nico nodded and let Chiron lead Hazel and himself away from the whispering gaggle of Mars pins.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I give you credit for actually reading the whole thing. Or at least taking the effort to scroll all the way to the bottom. Thanks much and come by often! (^_~)


End file.
